


Bubble Baths and Bonding Time

by Bloodsbane



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Bubble Bath, Fluff, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, M/M, also my first davekat fic so, i hope this works out fine yaayyyy hehe, it's more bromancy at first, more red later on hmmm, this is just pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-22
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 14:26:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1147059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloodsbane/pseuds/Bloodsbane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave and Karkat stumble upon something neither of them ever expected to find on the asteroid. Dave manages to coerce his new-found buddy into doing something that's totally NOT weird for friends to do - take a nice warm bubble bath together. Yeah, totally not weird.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Friendly Suggestion

About halfway through the second year of being stuck on the asteroid, Dave Strider discovered something very important: Karkat Vantas was an okay guy. Dave might even say, if he was inclined to be generous, that Karkat was even pretty cool. He was cool in an ironic way Dave could appreciate, always hot-tempered or flustered or confused, wearing his little alien heart on the sleeve of that stupid sweater in a way that was very much not-cool. But Karkat intrigued Dave and despite the troll’s verbal unwillingness to listen to or tolerate or attempt to understand Dave, the Strider knew better and had long since figured out how smart Karkat actually was.

(Although, really, the poor kid was handicapped when it came to relationships. Watching things disintegrate between him and Terezi had been almost embarrassing to watch. ‘Almost’, because in all honesty Dave thought it was mostly just sad)

So by year two into this relaxing extended tour of paradox space, provided personally by the Harley Corporation’s Special Space Exploration Pack, Dave began making earnest advances in Karkat’s direction. Securing a sloppy friendship was much easier than the Strider had anticipated. It took a long stretch of wheedling and careful tip-toing around touchy feelings, but at some point during Dave’s campaign, Karkat suddenly became interested, and that interest had somehow become closeness. Dave knew Karkat wouldn’t hesitate in tearing him apart at the mere voiced opinion that the troll was any sort of softie, but to Dave, it was an accurate description.

Which was why, despite all of Karkat’s uncoolness, Dave ended up spending as much time as he could with the troll.

Tonight (it always felt like nighttime out here, and perhaps to the trolls it always felt like day then, which, thought Dave, would explain their strange reservoirs of energy at what his body told him were ungodly hours), he and Karkat were off walking aimlessly about the deep intestine of the asteroid-ship-rock in search of something entertaining. Down here, where things were dark and cold, Dave made a point to hold Karkat’s arm with his own, elbows locked in a gentlemanly manner, playing it off as a damsel strolling with her man when really it was just a bit too dark for the aviator-wearing teen to see. Dave even added a slight sashay to the movement of his hips to seem more womanly, despite the fact Karkat had twice pointed it out with amused disgust. “You walk worse than Rose after she’s downed a few bottles of your human silly-juice.”

“Not true,” Dave said, adding an exaggerated hip movement with the two syllables, bumping Karkat roughly. “Rose has the smallest waist I’ve ever seen – well, okay, maybe excluding ‘Rezi’s, that chic’s more gangly than a group of delinquent twigs. My hips? They are quite fierce. I have a very dangerous waist.”

Karkat snorted, a surprisingly cute gesture, still very Vantas with the apparent displeasure, but it was clear how amused he was. His lips curled back to show a clear row of sharp teeth, inhumanly sharp, and his nose wrinkled slightly with his hyperbolic sneer. “There’s nothing dangerous about you. I’ve seen wrigglers who were more intimidating.”

“Oh really?” Dave bumped Karkat’s waist again, just enough to push him into the wall of the hallway. They’d entered a new part of the ship, built strangely, like the floor of a hotel – long stretches, sometimes intersecting and leading off into four different directions. There were doors, but most were locked or only led into small closets or dead-end alcoves. “Be careful man, I could bust a move and booty bump you all the way to the Furthest Ring.”

He bumped Karkat again, and the troll tensed, as he often did with too much physical contact from Dave. But then the little grey bastard pulled something that caught Dave completely off guard, swinging his own hips and slamming nearly his entire right side into Dave’s. Dave, who had not expected the counter attack, could not catch his footing from the forceful hit and stumbled sideways. He expected to fall against the wall, but Dave felt no wall waiting to catch him. His shoulder bumped a door, a door which let him continue falling into a large, dark room. He lost his wild footing and tumbled, hitting something to his left, then slamming on the hard floor.

Dave heard Karkat step into the room after him. “Oh shit, are you alright?” His voice was that of someone trying their best not to laugh, the faintest concern edging his tone.

“I’m quite peachy,” Dave mumbled, not quite sure how to react. He’d been surprised, and was now sprawled in a dark room in a very uncool way, and he wasn’t sure if he was angry at Karkat for that or not. He really shouldn’t be, and after deciding that realized he, indeed, was not upset. Old Dave might have thrown a fit at being so thoroughly trumped by someone who was not Bro Strider, the only individual in Dave’s life allowed to make a fool of the young blond. But over the last few weeks hanging out with Karkat (and it was strange, very strange, something that truly confused Dave and sometimes led to long nights in his makeshift bed of alchemized blankets and pillows and restless half-dreams), Dave had learned to live at ease. He didn’t much mind feeling a bit awkward when caught off guard, and even liked to let himself relax a little around his new friend. Maybe it was because Karkat hated how cool Dave was and it always put him in pissy mood – he liked it better when Dave tripped up a snarky comment or fucked a string of ill rhymes and silently muttered curses under his breath. Dave liked that Karkat liked that side of him.

But he still didn’t like falling on his ass on hard flooring.

“What the hell kind of a room is this?” Dave asked, spreading his hands and feeling the floor. It was much larger than any room they’d been able to inspect on this level of the asteroid. He saw Karkat’s outline in the dim blue light reach an arm to pat the wall, looking for a switch. In another second light flooded the room and revealed its contents.

It was a bathroom. Surprisingly in its familiar human-construct, so unlike most of the things on this ship, which all seemed much too large, too dark and oddly shaped, too _alien_ for Dave most days. This room seemed to be made of the same dark metal material most everything on this ship was made of, except there was something large and white attached to the far wall Dave felt he hadn’t seen in years.

Karkat looked just as surprised as Dave. “What the hell is an abulition trap doing on this ship?”

“Abu-what?” Dave quickly got to his knees, shuffling over to the glorious white linoleum. “You mean bathtub, right?”

“That’s what I fucking said,” Karkat snapped, fist on hip. “Is that what you humans call it too? Highbloods call them bathtubs, but that’s not what they are, they’re fucking abulition traps.”

“It’s a bathtub dude.” Dave draped himself over the edge of the tub. It was bigger than most he’d seen, built into the wall and running just a bit deeper than the level of the floor. “Oh my god, it has been forever since I’ve taken a good bath. Things are dirty as shit and don’t make any ounce of sense but damn if they aren’t the most relaxing things ever.”

Dave heard Karkat scoff behind him, but the tone sounded strange – half-hearted, uncomfortable. Dave looked over his shoulder to see the troll’s arms were now crossed and he was distracting himself with the nozzle of the sink. “Whatever. They’re probably not that great. Can we go back up now? It’s fucking cold down here, and you’re probably gonna get a concussion from falling on your ass and hitting your head on the floor, and I don’t wanna have to drag your unconscious, nook sniffing sack of plush human meat all the way back up to the main area to keep you from freezing to death.”

“Fuck you man, baths are great.”

“You just sit in a soup of your own dirt,” Karkat said incredulously, sounding beyond annoyed. Dave blinked, then realized something he’d missed.

“Hey, hey, wait a second. Have you never taken a bath before?”

Karkat frowned deeply. Dave nearly laughed out loud. “Are you serious? Oh my god.”

“Whatever!” Karkat snapped, “It doesn’t even matter! It’s none of your business anyway.”

“Do trolls not have baths?”

“Of course trolls have baths, fuckwit. Did you not just hear me when I said, and I fucking quote, ‘Highbloods call them bathtubs’? Did you not? I said it literally two seconds ago. Did you not hear? Of course you didn’t, you rhyme-regurgitating bastard, you were too busy being turned on by a shitty bowl of white linoleum. Trolls have bathtubs… Just not the ones with candy red piss for blood.” He was blushing now, out of anger and embarrassment, and Dave found himself feeling surprisingly shitty. He didn’t like it, so he stood up and rolled his shoulders.

“It’s no big deal man. Baths are just cool is all. You had a shower at least, right?”

Karkat’s face darkened more and Dave couldn’t believe it. _“Really?”_

“Shut up! Look, being a mutant isn’t exactly easy, and I lived in a really shitty hive and baths are considered a luxury for lowbloods,” Karkat spat, words tumbling together as he rushed to justify himself. “And before you get to thinking I liked wallowing in my own filth for six sweeps you are _wrong_.”

“Did you at least have a shower?”

Karkat pursed his lips. Then shook his head, saying, “No. I, uh… There was a decently deep river a few minutes away from my house. Lots of trees, no one else around. Decent spot for bathing.”

Dave felt somehow amazed by Karkat’s answer. He didn’t often think about troll culture – Rose was obsessed with it, but in all honesty Dave never paid much mind to it. In times like these, however, when an interesting little tidbit was tossed from Karkat’s running maw, he always felt surprisingly hungry for more. “So what you’re saying is you’ve never had a warm bath in your life?”

“What does it fucking matter?” Karkat bellowed a guttural sigh in exasperation, arms falling to his side, head rolling back as he stared at the ceiling as if asking God, please explain why I have to be trapped with this idiot for another year and a half. “I’ve never had a bath before. So what? Boo hoo, the sad little mutant has never experienced the pleasure of a leisurely dunk in a bowl of water. Who the fuck cares?”

“Do you want one?”

Karkat tensed, giving Dave a look of subdued disbelief, yellow eyes sharpening with confusion. “What?”

Dave suddenly envisioned giving Karkat a bath. It was a very abrupt stream of images that assaulted his mind, in rapid succession and vivid Technicolor. He had to work very hard to keep away a blush, his god tier pajamas suddenly feeling much heavier and hotter than they had a second ago, an amazing feat while deep in the ice cube they called home. “I said we should take a bath. It’ll be fun, I guess.” Damn, he was fucking up majorly right now.

Karkat gave Dave a look he could only describe as very narrow and suspicious. “Did you hit your head harder than I thought?”

“Naw man. It’s not a big deal, I’m just sayin’, baths are hella rad and the fact you’ve never had one would drive me to tears, had not the perfect opportunity to do so present itself to us.” He gestured to the tub behind him, nodding once. “I’m not saying you have to, but I’m just sayin, Karkles-“

“Don’t fucking call me that!”

“-that if you weren’t cool before, well, not having taken a bath is just one more strike on that list titled Lame Things About Karkat. And I mean if you get any more strikes than you already have you might get so lame it’d be social suicide to talk to you anymore.”

“You seriously wouldn’t talk to me if I don’t take this stupid bath?” The alien boy was thoroughly annoyed with Dave’s attempt at a pitch, but deep down in his tone, Dave caught something that both surprised and worried him – fear, a tiny prick of it, hanging on the tail end of every word like a tiny parasite.

Dave smirked and shook his head a little bit. “Well I mean, I know I won’t have to, since only a lame-o would deny an opportunity such as this, a chance practically thrown into your lap. I mean really, who in their right mind would deny themselves a warm bubble bath, if we’re all being honest here?”

Karkat blinked. He went from looking worried back to looking like Dave was incredibly stupid. “Bubble bath? What the hell are bubbles good for when it comes to a bath?”

Dave paused. “Trolls don’t have bubble baths?”

“You mean like, bubbles on water or something? Or dream bubbles? I don’t get it, bubbles don’t do shit.”

This was even worse (see: better) than Dave could have imagined. “Okay man, that’s it, no backing out of this now. I didn’t actually mind the whole scrubba dub dub the river is my tub thing but to have never had at least one bubble bath in your life is an _actual_ travesty and it would be inhumane of me not to correct this.”

Karkat was sneering, but said nothing, and Dave found himself feeling amazed at the fact he’d actually won the argument. He’d imagined at least a little more resistance – what Dave was suggesting was a little weird, especially between just-now friends. But he really, really wanted to take a bath, to do something that felt normal, a feeling quite elusive nowadays.

“C’mon man, it’ll be cool,” Dave said, throwing in what he hoped was an earnest smile. “Fun even, maybe. If you don’t ruin it with your bitching like you usually do.”

“What-ever,” Karkat drawled. He pulled himself up to sit on the sink, crossing his arms and glaring at the tub. When Dave headed out the doorway, he quickly asked, “Where the hell do you think _you’re_ going?”

“I have to go get things,” Dave stated simply. He had to keep his voice sounding neutral – inside he was abuzz with excitement. Maybe this _was_ a little weird, but for some reason it felt like they were doing something really cool, and odd and unplanned, and it wasn’t what they’d been doing over and over for the past two years, it was something new and they were doing it together as bros. “Here, the bathtub is pretty big – wait like five minutes and then turn it on.” Dave walked back over to the tub, pointing at the nozzle and its handles. “You know what to do, right?”

Karkat rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, then stiffened and snapped it closed again, his glare tuning full on Dave and filling with poison. Dave resisted the urge to flinch and instead smoothly instructed Karkat on how to work the tub. “You turn these to get the water flowing. It’ll be cold at first, but if you turn this one more,” he said, pointing to the handle with a little red H on it, “the water will be hotter. Once the water’s warm you pull this up, and the drain will close up so the warm water will stay in the tub.” Dave pointed to the small handle beneath the nozzle, pulling it up and down so Karkat could hear the drain opening and closing. He flew quickly out the door, calling back, “Don’t fuck it up Vantas! I’ll be back in just a sec.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I posted this and said it was only gonna be two chapters? I lied. It's definitely swelled up to three chapters and I don't now how so don't askkkkk

Dave wasted little time in finding his way back to the main rooms of the asteroid. He grabbed some clean towels, white ones he guessed once belonged to the weird sweaty troll with blue blood, and then alchemized some bubble bath. Thinking they’d be cold on their trip back to their rooms, Dave snagged a few thick blankets as well as extra clothes for the both of them. It was a heavy load, and he ended up having to remove his cape and make a big cloth basket to hold it all. Kanaya, who was reading in the library, gave Dave a few pointed looks, but he ignored the alien vampire and quickly flew back to Karkat once he’d collected everything.

When he returned to the bathroom, Karkat was watching the tub fill up with water, his face one of subdued fascination. He flinched when Dave flew in and dropped his moderately sized bundle in the corner. “Holy shit, do we really need all of that stuff for a bath?”

“Hell yeah,” Dave breathed, almost smiling. He touched back to the ground and then removed his shoes, feeling the cold floor beneath him. He turned and untied the cape while Karkat slowly followed his lead and took off his own shoes.

Dave pulled a large, red bottle from the mess of fabric and waved it before Karkat, who inspected it with a look of over-emphasized disinterest. “What is this?”

“Bubble bath,” Dave answered simply. He walked over to the rushing water and unscrewed the lid, breathing in the plume of sweet fragrance that escaped from inside the bottle. Karkat sniffed, then puffed in surprise.

“It smells like candy!”

“That’s kind of the point.”

“Where are the bubbles? It’s just liquid.”

Rather than answer his inquiring buddy, Dave tipped the bottle over and let the clear color-tinged liquid fall into the waterfall of steaming water. Almost instantly bubbles started to bloom from the base, pink in color, dividing in a way almost frantic. Dave heard Karkat gasp quietly behind him, and smirked. “Voila! My ability to work miracles is not restricted to timey-wimey feats of sick biznasty fancy.”

“How do they do that?” Karkat asked. He hesitated, then dipped hand and scooped up a small dollop on one finger. He sniffed the bubbles, then crushed them in his hand, obviously expecting them to pop, but found some still remained in his palm when he opened it. He scooped up more and mushed the small berg of sweet bubbles between both palms, but still some remained, the others popping into sweet water that soaked his hands and made them shine.

Dave felt like laughing as he watched Karkat play with the bubbles, but made sure he didn’t, knowing his friend would instantly cease his cute behavior if Dave so much as chuckled. Karkat looked like a three year old discovering something new for the first time. His hands, which were bigger and rougher than Dave’s, seemed almost awkward as they messed with the bubbles, pinching them and gently shaping the heaps in his palms, scrubbing them from one palm into the other, than back and forth again and again. He’d wrinkle his noes whenever he took a big whiff of them, but repeated the motion so often Dave knew better than to fall for his little façade.

“If you were worried about me gawking at your junk, you don’t have to worry now,” Dave said, twisting the lid back onto the bottle and throwing it carefully into the sink. “The bubbles will hide anything under the water.”

Karkat blushed and aggressively shook the bubbles from his hands. “Good! Now I won’t have to risk an eyeful of your weird, _inferior_ alien parts.”

Dave raised an eyebrow at his companion. “How dare you question the legitimacy of my libido? The efficiency of my erections, the clear dominance of my dong?” Dave’s thumbs slipped past the elastic of his red pants, tips gliding over the material of his boxers. “How could you know, Karkat, exactly how beastly my beefstick really is without firsthand experience? Maybe we should joust. Find out who holds the broadsword in this relationship.”

“Don’t you always break your swords?” Karkat snapped, looking redder than Dave had ever seen him. The human teen could not resist a chuckle this time, but kept it subtle, grinning at Karkat as he snarled, “Stop using those weird alien terms for bulge!”

“Whatever man. C’mon, time to strip!”

Karkat looked surprised, but then embarrassed, and Dave paused in the removal of his own pants to give Karkat a look. The tub was roaring between them, and the bubbles had created a suitably sized mountain range of pink peaks and valleys, with only one or two sudsy lakes remaining visible.

Dave wasn’t someone who was very self-conscious about his body – he’d never needed to be, being so secluded with only Bro around to laugh at his chubby little-kid body, then his awkward too-skinny one, suddenly covered in disgusting golden peach fuzz. But Dave understand Karkat had that _thing_ about his blood color (really it was such a dumb thing to worry about, especially with it being the normal blood color for humans anyway, though that probably just made it all worse for the prideful troll), so really, it was amazing Dave had gotten Karkat this far at all. The troll was probably beyond uncomfortable at this point. Dave quietly scolded himself and made a mental note to try and be more considerate from now on. Or whatever. Having friends is hard.

“Hey, listen,” he said, holding up his hands in a sign of surrender, “how about this? You get in the tub first, and I won’t look while you get in?”

Karkat looked like he wanted to argue, probably feeling childish at making Dave look away, but the Strider already had his back turned and was counting backwards from twenty obnoxiously, letting Karkat know he only had a few seconds to accept his offer. He heard Karkat throwing his clothes onto the floor, then the splash of him climbing into the tub. It was a very large tub and would fit them both easily.

He heard Karkat gasp, then let out a very unusual sound, one Dave didn’t think he’d ever heard from the troll before. It was somewhere between a sigh and a moan, breaking at the end with the rumbling of – wait, was Karkat _growling?_  

Dave skipped a few numbers and turned, more curious to see Karkat’s state than he was comfortable admitting. He had to bite his lip to keep from bursting out into millions of very uncool giggles. Karkat was in the tub, hunched over, head half-submerged in the tallest peak of the bubbly mountains. He looked like a cat being forced to bathe, sharp-eyed and grumpy. He’d turned the faucet off too, and Dave could hear the water splashing with even the tiniest movement. It was very quiet in the room now, suddenly absent of the roaring waterfall filling up their tub; all Dave could hear was the soft splashes of water, the undertone of sweet rumbles vibrating from Karkat’s throat, and his own breathing, suddenly, ever-so-slightly, hitched.

“Okay,” Karkat mumbled, pulling his hands from under the water and covering his eyes with them, “your turn.”

Dave shimmied out of his pants and boxers, then fluidly removed his over and undershirts. The cold of the air surrounded his body very suddenly and he actually shivered a bit – the god tier clothes were very warm, and tended to keep Dave comfortable in any temperature, but it’d been a while since he’d worn anything else. Very eager to escape the cold and climb into the bath, Dave didn’t hesitate in throwing one leg into the water, splashing slightly.

The Strider immediately bit his lip and removed the limb. Before he could stop himself, a small whine pierced his vocal cords, and though he immediately beat it down into something that sounded a little more manly, like a grunt, Karkat had heard. Without removing his hands from his eyes, the troll asked, “What? What happened – are you okay?”

“The water is so hot it’s hard for me to believe you have not yet turned into a delicious entree served at upper-class restaurants.”

“Uh, what?”

“It’s really fucking hot!” Dave said, holding his leg. “How hot did you make this?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Karkat leaned his head back, dunking his chin into the water and sighing though his nose, eyes still closed. He let out another strange rumble, a noise Dave began to suspect was the result of pleasure. “The water is perfect. I’ve never felt water this warm, oh my god.”

Dave scrunched his eyebrows, then remembered something Rose had told him about trolls and their blood. Apparently, the higher they were on the spectrum or whatever, the colder their blood was. Thinking about it, Kanaya had always seemed abnormally clammy to Dave… And Karkat always felt a tad too warm, though Dave had never given it much thought before. For Karkat, the water probably felt perfect, while to Dave it was a dip in a volcanic sauna.

“What’s wrong?” Karkat asked. His inflection was dangerously taunting. “Is it too hot for you?”

“What? No way man. Give me a sec – no peeking.”

Dave grit his teeth and put his leg back into the water, ignoring what felt like his skin catching ablaze inch by inch. Then in went his other leg. Dave could feel himself already beginning to sweat, but Karkat was sighing in an exaggerated manner. “Are you done yet, you sissy wiggler?”

Dave abruptly plunked all the rest of the way, casing a bit of a splash, and tiny bubbles to fly away from their peaks, up into the air only to pop a second later. He bit his lip again and forced himself not to react to the heat of the water, instead settling himself carefully so he was not sitting on his legs.

His foot grazed something soft, and Karkat jumped, opening his eyes as his hands dove to attack whatever had touched him. Dave felt claws poke at his toes, and he said, “Watch it bro! Calm down, it’s just my foot.”

“Your foot? Oh.” Karkat pulled away, scrunching up against the opposite end of the tub.

They were quiet for a little bit, staring at each other, though Dave had his head tilted ever so slightly at an angle, to give the impression he might just be looking somewhere else. Karkat looked defiant, and so he did not look especially embarrassed or tense, but Dave knew they must be feeling the same thing – a thick awkwardness, steaming between them like the water of the bath, heaped up tall as the silly pink bubbles.

This was a dumb idea, wasn’t it?

God, Dave was an idiot. The biggest idiot. This was going to ruin everything. He could see it now – Karkat eventually saying ‘fuck it’ and climbing angrily out of the tub, cursing Dave and his weird alien bathing rituals, all middle-fingers and swears, abandoning Dave and their fragile friendship in this hot-as-shit water in this cold-as-shit room all alone to lick his soapy wounds, which would taste nasty and cause Dave to make some seriously uncool faces.

Or maybe he was just overreacting. Was he overreacting? Dave gave Karkat a hard look. He didn’t _think_ the troll showed any signs of ditching him and fleeing from this bath of embarrassment. In fact, Karkat was now distracted by the bubbles again, playing with them quietly with the tips of his fingers. He glanced at Dave every now and then, but the human stayed quiet, and Karkat probably figured Dave was either looking away or spacing off and not paying much attention either way. Karkat would gently rest his head into the water, just above his nose, and blow bubbles while he observed the soap on his hands. The tips of his wild locks were becoming wet – Dave couldn’t recall a time he’d ever seen Karkat’s hair wet before.

So… Dave could make this work. Sure. The water didn’t feel quite as scorching as it did when he first climbed in. Karkat actually seemed chill with something for a change, possibly too distracted trying not to seem upset to actually be mad at Dave’s stupid suggestion. And Dave could already feel the warmth of the water seeping into him – it felt so good, and it was a feeling he hadn’t been able to enjoy for so long, and he figured it would be stupid of him to keep stressing and miss his chance.

So if Karkat could play it off like this wasn’t even a thing, than he could too. Honestly, it wasn’t as if Dave had never bathed with someone else before – he still remembered taking baths with his older Bro as a kid, back when he and Bro were any semblance of close. Of course, the joined baths ended quite suddenly almost the second he turned seven years old, but Dave had vivid memories of his brother stacking obscene amounts of bubbles on his head, and the two of them playing out ridiculously sick scenes with Dave’s toys, before he was too old for such silly, conventional stuff – quite literally child’s play, he’d declared the day he’d decided to toss them out for good.

Thinking back on those baths, they _were_ a little odd and awkward to think of, but really, what wasn’t? Everything that happened in Casa De Strider was fifty shades of fucked up and twisted in any case. Taking baths with his brother had never even stuck Dave as even a little odd until this very moment. So Dave leaned back his shoulders and kicked up his feet, bringing his knees up and over the lip of the tub so his legs hung out, dripping. His elbows rested behind him, Dave rolled his neck and settled it back, in the corner of the wall where linoleum and steel met.

Karkat was a bit startled by Dave’s sudden display of extreme ease, but didn’t do much else. He sat up a bit straighter, suddenly not as self-conscious as he had been at first. “So, is this it then?” Karkat asked, cupping some water in his hands and letting it slide through the cracks in his fingers. He seemed for a moment captured by how the water settled in the creases of his skin, spreading and clumping together naturally, then being absorbed into light-gray wrinkles. “This is a bath? It’s alright, I guess. I think you made too much of a fucking fuss about it.”

“Yup,” Dave said, sighing pleasantly, already drowsy with how relaxed he found himself. “This is it. The life. Nothing quite like it.”

“Too much fuss,” Karkat repeated, a bit sourly. Then he sniffled. “I guess it smells nice enough though, and feels alright. It’s really warm.”

“Hell yeah it is,” Dave said. He stretched a bit, arms up, then crossed his legs at the ankle and settled again.

Karkat gave him a curious look. “What were those?”

“What was what?”

“Those things on your chest.”

Dave sat up a bit so his chest wasn’t covered by water or bubbles. “Oops, did I let a nip slip? How scandalous.”

“A nip?” Karkat spat out the word, then said, “You humans give everything the stupidest names. What’s a ‘nip’?”

“Nipple, friend, is the correct term. Am I gonna have to school you some Human Biology 101?”

“Never mind, I don’t even care anymore. Any curiosity I had over the fact has now been rightly trampled into the sand and left to erode and be swept up by the wind of indifference. My curiosity has died of dehydration, realizing the only oasis containing anything remotely feasible for healthy consumption had been poisoned by the very essence of Strider idiocy.  It has chosen to shrivel up and die of extraordinary malnutrition rather than be force fed your rancid wriggler vomit.”

“Aw, ‘c’mon Karkitty, a little curiosity never hurt nobody,” Dave said, chuckling – he couldn’t help it.” It’ll be fun, like comparing cup sizes or gossiping about boys or constructing love potions via outlawed modes of alchemy and witchcraft –  or some other girly bonding shit chics do when they bathe together, which is totally a thing chics do.” Dave made a show of rolling his eyes, despite the fact Karkat could not, in fact, see him do it, and hoped he at least got his point across. “You talk such a big talk friend – and so much of it – but you really don’t know shit about human culture, do you? You call me uncultured swine, which is very rude by the way, you better watch class-A douche language like that else it becomes some sorta fad, like some phrase used by fanboys and basement-babbies on Reddit and other blogging sites who might use it for meme-level bullshit-“

“You’re derailing yourself,” Karkat grumbled.

“-You  make fun of _me_ for not knowing jack shit concerning weird ass troll customs and cultures and shipping charts or whatever, but admit it, you know just as much jack as I do when it comes to humans, beyond what you’ve managed to gather through the game. Kanaya probably knows more about us than you do, and I don’t even mean through reading or askin’ and shit,” Dave said, winking devilishly, and laughing when Karkat caught fire with embarrassment.

“I don’t need to touch any inch of your nook-slurping, oinkbeast colored mammal flesh body to know about how idiotic the human design is. You guys are pathetic, and I or any troll mentally capable of staying out of the sun would know it. No horns, no claws, no _real_ teeth – it’s a wonder you walking insulting excuses for a species survive on your pitiful planet for more than a few seconds. You are the phlegm caught in the throat of your now deceased space frog, and literally the reason it chocked on the stars of your universe and expired prematurely. It’s body twitches now beyond the far reaches of our combined comprehensions, beyond the furthest realm, the most mysterious of beyonds, one leg twitching as it gurgles away and awareness seeps from its skin, from which the dust of moons and stars and immense glacial rock seeps through the mucus membrane of its flaccid limbs.”

“What a poetic and detailed description of the utter devastation of my universe, Karkitty! I bet it helps when you have firsthand experience, though.”

Karkat reached over and slapped Dave’s shoulder, but the blow slid right off Dave’s skin. He caught Karkat’s wrist with his other hand and pulled it sharply to the left, away from the wall, so Karkat was forced to lean forward a bit so he didn’t fall down (and right into Dave’s crotch, hidden underwater, like a sea serpent waiting for ignorant sailors with high blood pressure to fall over the edge of the boat so it could prey upon them and okay Dave end this thought it’s getting unusually weird). Karkat’s torso peaked out of the water, and Dave dropped Karkat’s wrist in surprise. “Holy shit, bro, are you _bleeding?”_

“What? Hell no! What the hell are you talking about?” Karkat leaned back to the far end up the tub again, holding his wrist as if offended Dave had dared to initiate any sort of contact. “Don’t fucking touch me, by the way, you lusus-fucking-”

“Seriously, Karkat, what is that on your side? I thought it was a wound.” Dave leaned over to examine the faint red blotches he could see, now, just below the surface of the water, obscured by soap and bubbles. Karkat hesitated, then sat up a little bit to reveal two red things, one on each side of his ribcage. They weren’t too big nor too thick, but seemed to be like giant, slick scabs on his skin, bright as his blood. If Dave cupped his hand around Karkat’s side it’d cover just as much space. “What are those?”

“These? They’re just my grub scars,” Karkat said. He laughed, a little meanly, but it was shaky. “All trolls have them, you doofus. They’re from when our extra baby legs fall off.”

“Oh yeah? Huh. Fucking weird.”

Dave reached over without thinking, fingertips grazing the apex of the small red shape. Karkat jerked violently, gasping, and one of his feet shot out from beneath the water and would have bashed Dave’s jaw into his brain, had the Strider not been quick enough to react. But he only had time to pull back a bit – Karkat’s heel caught his cheek, and the force of the blow sent his shades flying clear off his face, up into the air and away from the tub. It grazed the wall above their pile of clothes and things before falling on top of Karkat’s sweater, crumpled where it lay next to Dave’s pile of clothes.

“Goddammit Strider!”

“God damn yourself, Karkat! You almost took my eye out!”

Dave looked down at the water, closing his eyes. He had to resist the urge to cover them with his hands.

“Oh my god, _please_ , you nook-snorting bucket-licker! You are the one who just reached his grubby human fingers right on over the Acceptable Friendship Distance Line so you could get your pathetic pink nails acquainted with my personal… person.” Karkat sounded angry, mostly, but also flustered, but Dave couldn’t see his expression, too busy hiding his own. The room was brighter without his shades – the bubbles more pink, his reflection in the tub very clear and visible now, and the searing red irises of his eyes gazed back into him, wide and unaccustomed to the sight. He looked startled and frustrated.

The fact that he looked _anything_ made Dave upset. 

“Sorry,” Dave mumbled, easily surrendering to Karkat’s (completely justified) tantrum a lot quicker than he usually would. He gazed at his shades, wanting to climb right out of the tub and snag them, but things were already stupid and awkward without Karkat having to grab an eyeful of his pale ass right then and there. The troll was steaming across from him, he could see in the reflection of the water now, but Karkat’s eyes were sharp with intentness, not rage.

“Dave you are a shit and I would appreciate it if you never touched me anywhere ever again without proper consent… If only for your sake,” Karkat snarled weakly. He seemed to be shivering – Dave could see tiny ripples in the water coming from his direction.

“Yeah man, uh, sorry about that. For realsies.”

Karkat scoffed at Dave’s choice of words, but didn’t say much else. Dave was quiet, staring down at his reflection, too (he would never admit it himself, ever, not even now) insecure to look up and reveal his now very visible face. He looked different. It had been a while since Dave had seen his own face, at least without his shades, and he looked… older. Tired. His hair had always grown slowly, and it only reached just past his ears now at the sides, but it still felt so much longer than it once was. There were freckles and blemishes all over his face and forehead, tiny nicks and scratches from injuries he couldn’t recall.

His eyes were so bright. Dave had never been fond of looking at them, but really, after dealing with all he’d been through so far – trolls, demonic hellhounds, living on other planets – red eyes no longer seemed so unusual in the grand scheme of things. They actually used to freak Dave out a lot, but now they seemed almost mundane compared to everything else in Dave’s life. But they still felt strange to look at - unfamiliar, despite being his own.

Dave felt something approaching him, and saw the shadow of it in the water. He tensed but did not move when something was pressed gently against his crown. “What are you doing?”

“Be still!” Karkat hissed, distracted. Karkat pulled away, and Dave saw him scoop up a large handful of bubbles before placing them on Dave’s head. “I’m burying you.”

“Uh, what the hell for?”

“You got that ‘oh god please just burry me now’ look about you, so I figure I’d do my _bro_ a solid,” Karkat said cheekily. He had a cute little way he said the word ‘bro’, halfway between extremely exasperated and beyond amused. “Just be still.”

“No way man,” Dave replied, and quickly dunked his head into the water before him. Eyes closed, he resurfaced as soon as he’d felt all of his head had been submerged. He kept his eyes closed and ran a hand through his hair, removing anymore bubbles, then shook his head like a dog. As he’d expected, Karkat let out a noise of alarm and hissed.

“Don’t do that! You’re getting me wet.”

“Because you weren’t already?”

“Shut the fuck up Strider! You look like a barkbeast when you do that.”

Dave stuck out his tongue and pretended to pant. Karkat laughed. “There! Now your actions finally match your intellect.”

“Low blow bro. You’re mean. Why are you so mean to me?”

“Because you’re a stupid fucker, Dave. You are easily the most frustrating, ignorant, incomprehensible buffoon I’ve ever had the displeasure of having to refer to as my friend.”

“That’s practically a love letter, coming from you,” Dave said, smiling, eyes still closed. He wondered how long he could keep it up before Karkat called him out. He waved his hands a bit, locating a mound of bubbles, then scooped them up and leaned towards Karkat.

“Hey, what are you-” Dave felt Karkat flinch when he smacked the ball of bubbles against the troll’s cheek, just hard enough to receive an audible slap noise. Dave heard the growl before he felt Karkat shifting, and in another second the troll had smeared two handfuls of bubbles into Dave’s face, holding his head in his two large hands. Dave’s cheeks were mushed together, and he puckered his lips a bit, making silly squeaking noises he thought would throw Karkat off, either that or annoy him; it did both, and Karkat scoffed and angrily continued to mush Dave’s face up, spreading bubbles all over and making Dave produce what he could only assume were some very priceless expressions.

Karkat chuckled and laughed, molding Dave’s face while the Strider feebly pretended to resist. His hands found Karkat’s shoulders, and he gently pushed them away, but the water and soap made his hands slide downwards, and he touched something rough. Karkat immediately tensed, and it took Dave a second to realize what his fingers were now holding onto.

Karkat’s hands fell from Dave’s face, allowing the human boy to say, “Uh, sorry again. Do these hurt when I touch them or what…?”

Dave could not see where Karkat was, but he hadn’t yet moved away from Dave’s hands, or removed them himself. He was very still from what Dave could tell. “It doesn’t hurt. It’s just… they’re kinda sensitive.”

Almost hearing the blush in his voice, Dave pulled his hands away, but he couldn’t help the way his fingers slowly grazed down the spine of the scar, feeling the sandpaper-like surface. He could feel as Karkat shivered. Dave pulled back and bit the inside of his lip.

That was some very interesting information, but Dave was determined to keep things light and ignored the budding silence, wanting to keep things easy as he said, “Nipples are kind of like that too. Sensitive, I mean. More for the ladies I think, which is unfair in my opinion, them getting all the fun.”

“What are they for?” Karkat asked quietly.

“Again, ladies getting the fun. I mean, I assume it’s fun. I don’t know shit about babies or being a mom or anything… You know how mammals drink milk when they’re born?”

“Yeah, sure. Oh wait, don’t tell me humans do that shit too?”

Dave nodded, and heard Karkat groan, laughing at the troll’s disgust. “That’s so fucking barbaric. Meowbeasts and hoofbeasts, they milk-feed! You guys are no more distinguished and evolved than a goddamn kitten! I can’t believe this.” A pause, then, “Does this mean you, uh, make milk too?”

Dave couldn’t help his sudden bark of laughter. “Oh god no! Only girls feed babies our weird mammal milk, and that’s only after they have the baby I think.”

“So then why do you even have them?”

Dave shrugged. “For fun. They feel nice sometimes I guess.”

“Feel nice?”

Dave nodded, then wiggled his eyebrows at the troll he could not see. “Sensitive, remember?”

He heard Karkat’s breath hitch, then the troll scoffed and Dave knew he was probably flustered again. He couldn’t help whipping some of the lingering soap and water away from his eyelids, but still didn’t want to open his eyes quite yet.

Things got quiet, and Dave leaned back into his previous relaxed position. He ran a hand through his now wet hair, then got an idea. A positively stupid, horrendously embarrassing, idiotic idea that he wanted to do so badly he instantly blurted it out: “You should let me wash your hair.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hooray for a dumb sudden shitty ending. They seem to be my specialty, really. Sorry if the ending sucks TT^TT
> 
> I hope this was fluffy enough for you guys, and sorry it seemed so wishy washy with the romance, I guess I was just really trying to get a feel of how to have the characters interact. 
> 
> There will most likely be a sequel to this at some point though so! I guess its safe to say this story is not yet complete u3u
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Comments are very much appreciated~

“What?” Karkat’s voice was deadpan.

“Close your eyes.”

“How about no, you shitstain?”

Dave sat up and gave Karkat as much of a glare as he could manage without opening his eyes. “Just do it. It’ll feel nice, and I’m sure your hair fucking needs as much attention as it can get.”

“Um, excuse me, I didn’t know my hair was any of your business!”

“Come on,” Dave insisted. He added, “If you let me do it – and it’ll only take like five seconds man, at most, if you don’t wriggle around and act like a baby-”

“The redundancy of that statement only further proves how little knowledge you bother to retain about my culture.”

“Whatever, man, I’m just saying it’ll feel really great and it’ll only take a second and I promise if you let me we can just climb right the fuck out of this porcelain party boat.”

Karkat grunted and growled, but Dave did not hear a protest. He opened his eyes just a tad, enough to see Karkat was now covering his own. “Be quick, Strider. My interest in this whole ‘experience’ is plummeting faster than a legion of spontaneous asteroids might hurtle towards a giant hunk of rock floating in space, whether said rock holds questionably intelligent life or not.”

Dave didn’t waste time talking back, instead sliding out of the tub with as much care as he could manage. It was cold out of the water, freezing actually, and Dave shivered and gasped a bit before he thought to expect the chill. His footfalls were wet and loud as he tip-toed over to the pile of clothes, rummaging through them, and locating two more brightly-colored bottles. He didn’t think he’d get a chance to use these now, but had made them just in case he ever wanted to come back by himself, get a good rinse, actually feel really _clean_ for once. Dave also made a mental note to mention the discovery of this bathroom to Rose, who would probably appreciate the chance to take a nice long soak. Maybe she’d follow Dave’s lead and drag a troll into joining her.

Wasting no time in reclaiming the warmth of the bath water, Dave quickly climbed back in and settled down, taking a moment to throw some handfuls of water on his shoulders. Once Karkat heard him come back in, the troll opened his eyes and saw Dave had also snagged his shades, and was now indifferent to everything (as far as anyone who was not Dave could tell). “So what, exactly, will you be doing to my hair?” asked the troll.

“I’m gonna wash it.”

“Yeah, you said that already. What does that constitute exactly?”

“Scoot back and move over.”

Karkat looked like he wanted to argue (and honestly, when didn’t he?), but Dave could see the troll was getting very tired of all this back and forth, and probably just wanted to please Dave’s insanely stupid desires in order to flee from this embarrassing debacle as soon as he could. So he followed directions in begrudging silence, sliding back to give Dave more room, and shifting his weight to the side of the bath, giving Dave a clear view of the tub’s nozzle.

Dave placed the bottle of conditioner on the floor by the tub and then leaned forward, turning the water on. It warmed quickly enough, and the roar of water crashing into water was oddly comforting, different from the strained silence. Dave found himself relaxing as he felt newly hot water mixing with the stagnant water they’d been sitting in, and steam began to rise from the surface between patches of bubbles.

After giving Karkat a warning gesture, Dave reached up and took the troll by the hair, a hand gently fisted into the black bristles at the temple. His hair was only slightly unlike that of a humans’ – naturally thick and very course, and it didn’t seem to absorb water well. It was almost rough between Dave’s fingers. Karkat growled with Dave’s action, but jerked outright when he attempted to tilt the troll’s head back into the rush of water. Karkat aggressively bared his teeth and removed Dave’s hands from his mane of hair and snarled, “Don’t you fucking dare, Strider! What the hell do you even think you’re doing?”

“Getting your hair wet,” Dave said, working to keep his voice even – Karkat could be very rough and very quick when he was alarmed. The troll’s pupils were small, eyes wild, and then Dave realized what he’d done, pulling Karkat’s head back and exposing his neck. It was probably instinct, Karkat’s reaction. “Hey, hey, look, sorry! I didn’t mean to make you soil yourself.”

“I did not soil myself you shit-eating fuck!”

“Look, if you won’t let me do it, just lean back and wet your hair! Actually, better idea: turn around completely and lean forward instead. It’ll be easier to wash your hair that way, in any case.”

“I don’t see why that wasn’t your idea in the first place,” Karkat spat. He did as he was told, but each gesture was aggravated, and Dave knew his friend’s patience was very very close to well spent. With a sigh, Dave watched as Karkat leaned forward and shook his hair, trying to get the warm water to reach his scalp through layers of dark frizz. Why was it so hard to not offend this guy? Why was it so _easy_ to fuck up, ruin a good time? Granted, this entire effort he’d made had been super shit from the start.

Again, Dave found himself pondering on why, exactly, he’d thought this was a good idea. He felt like he was reevaluating a decision he’d made years ago, through the eyes of an older, more experienced self, looking back on a twelve-year-old disgrace of a Strider taking shitty selfies and thinking himself clever.

He was jostled back to reality when Karkat jeered at him, “Hey, will you get on with the washing already?”

Karkat was slumped, grey back curved convex towards Dave, arms between his legs as he stared at the wall in bored exasperation. His hair was damp and dripping slightly. Dave grabbed the shampoo and squeezed a glob of shiny pink liquid into his hand, deciding to finish this as quickly as possible, if only to spare himself any further embarrassment.

He rubbed the shampoo between his hands and fingers, enjoying the old, familiar feeling, then dove his fingers into Karkat’s mass of hair. It took a second to get in there – it was seriously way too thick, did all trolls have such thick hair? – but eventually Dave found Karkat’s scalp and began massaging the shampoo against it. Once he’d gotten it wet and sudsy enough, he removed his hands to get more shampoo, attempting to get it all over Karkat’s head this time.

He fell into the motions quietly as the water of the tub still roared. He mentioned to Karkat to lift the switch that opened the drain every once in a while, to cycle out the water and make sure the tub didn’t overflow. Karkat obeyed silently as Dave scrubbed his hair, fingers tangling in knots, gently wrestling with them, then fading back into a rhythmic back and forth.

Karkat’s hair was wild and dense, but not impossible to tame, and soon enough Dave had softened it to where he could easily run his fingers through all parts. He took a moment to style Karkat’s hair in a silly spike, a twist, an odd mass of black, soapy shapes. He found he greatly enjoyed this feeling of rubbing the soap into Karkat’s hair, massaging the scalp and gently pulling the roots (he liked doing it to his own hair, and Karkat didn’t complain, so it must have felt okay to the troll). Once or twice he even caught a noise over the water –  Karkat would grunt or growl, shuffle a bit before sighing and settling again.

The bubbles were plentiful pink, and Dave had the image of a Japanese anime, with cherry blossoms falling every which way, probably choking someone or blinding a car with their sheer numbers. They frothed at Dave’s working hands, and dribbled down Karkat’s neck, dripping on his ears and settling on his grey shoulders and sloping back. Dave paused for just a moment, suddenly overwhelmed by the sweet scent of the shampoo. He noticed the way the pink seemed to glow against Karkat’s skin. It was such a soft effect, so unlike all the other characteristics of the troll, soft and quiet and simple. The roar of the water turned into a dim hum in Dave’s ears as he rested one hand gently at the base of Karkat’s neck, another hand gently smoothing away the bubbles on his shoulder. The bubbles would stick to his fingers, drag before popping, tiny water vapors scattering into nothing space. Pink on grey; Dave thought it was a beautiful combination.

“Dave?”

His voice was hardly audible over the water. It shivered, so slightly. Dave removed his hands from Karkat’s skin and said plainly, “Wash it out?”

                He watched Karkat lean forward to wash out the shampoo. Dave thought he murmured something to Karkat about keeping the soap out of his eyes, but was distracted. His eyes grazed the line of Karkat’s back, noticed each rising pump of his spine, the way his muscles stretched taught about his waist, his shoulders (oh yes, Karkat did have muscles, lean ones Dave hardly noticed, yet bolder than the human’s). Karkat’s hands washed out the soap, rolling with wave after wave of hair, fingers curling through the strands at the base of his neck absentmindedly.

                Karkat lifted his head, squeezed some water from his hair, looked at Dave over the shoulder. His yellow eyes were not so sharp now, no longer burning with irritation, but seemed gentle as the soap, soft and pink, on grey shoulders. “Um… Is that it? I saw you had another bottle so I wasn’t sure…”

                “Nah, there’s one more,” Dave answered simply. He squeezed out some conditioner, a substance of thicker complextion than that of its clearer, sudsier cousin. “Shampoo cleans your hair and makes it easier to get knots out. Conditioner makes it soft and healthy.”

                “Oh. That’s, uh… kinda cool, actually.”

                “You think so?”

                “Sure. I mean if trolls used this stuff more often, I’d think we’d have much nicer hair.” Karkat grimaced, then smirked mischievously. “I couldn’t really blame you when you said my hair needed a wash or whatever, it’s kinda shit, all trolls’ have shitty hair to be honest.”

                Dave got started as Karkat turned around, allowing the human to spread the conditioner and rub it into the layers of hair. “Is it this thick for everyone?”

                “I guess,” Karkat said, shrugging a shoulder, grey shoulder, soft with warm water and soap and pink shine from the light. “Mine’s super thick. Gamzee… his hair is – was – uh, _is_ thick. Thicker than mine. I don’t really know about Kanaya’s. It’s probably about the same, I guess.”

                “Hm.”

                “Maybe you humans just have super thin hair,” Karkat suggested, his tone saturated with its usual teasing accusation. “That’s probably it. You guys are inferior to us in pretty much every conceivable way, so I think it’s safe to assume thick hair is just the right choice, if you’re trying to succeed in the whole evolution thing, anyway.”

                “I’m sure it helps clumsy airheads like you from popping that bubble you call a skull,” Dave said, smirking as he gently knocked on the back of Karkat’s head. The troll growled at him, but Dave could tell it was playful.

                He was quick in finishing with the conditioner (it was never as much fun as shampoo, not enough bubbles), but made Karkat sit with it in his hair for a few minutes before allowing the troll to wash it out. Karkat seemed surprised once his head came up from the water again. He ran his hands through his hair over and over. It was odd seeing it so wet and out of shape – rather than stick up every which way, a messy mop of frizz and wild curls, it now fell in soft, round waves all about his face, mixed with heavy straight masses. It was drying quickly, quicker than human hair would, but was being left much softer than it had been before the bath. “Huh. This is so weird. It’s kinda nice though.”

                “Isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s weird and soft, but… I don’t hate it I guess.” Karkat pretended to huff and tried to look irritated, but Dave could only smile faintly at his efforts. Then Karkat asked, after a little pause, “What about your hair?”

Dave shrugged one shoulder. “I’m fine. I’ll wash it later I guess. I’m pretty ready to scram – my beautiful, delicate hands are starting to prune.”

“Uh, what?”

Dave silently held his hands out from beneath the water, showing Karkat the wrinkles on his fingertips. Karkat looked extremely startled, then scoffed out a laugh, then looked uneasy again. “What the actual heck?”

“It’s a human thing I don’t even really get,” Dave said simply. “Something to do with us being like half water, probably. Hey, what about your troll phalanges? Are they old and decrepit like mine?”

Karkat held his hands up from beneath the water, but they didn’t seem at all like Dave’s, only faintly soggy. Karkat grinned a victorious grin at Dave, who only shrugged again. “I guess trolls need something going for them.”

Dave got out of the tub first, rubbing off the water with a towel and wrapping himself in it and looking away while Karkat followed. He expertly tucked the towel securely around his thin waist (thinner now than it had been – was he getting so skinny? Or was he just growing upward now?), and Karkat, after a moment of hesitation, attempted to mimic the gesture. His towel was not nearly as secure and the troll kept one hand close to he little knot, but Dave pretended not to notice.

“Would you like to change now, or escape to your room with a bundle to call your own?” Dave said, gesturing to the big pile of clothes and cloth in the corner. He’d stashed away all of the bathroom stuff for he and Rose to use later, and waited for Karkat to decide what they should do.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure what course of action would be best now. Part of him wanted to flee, to leave Karkat as soon as possible, to forget this whole, strange event even happened. Yet part of him didn’t want to leave yet, or at least, didn’t want to leave Karkat yet. He wanted to stay with the troll, hang out more, maybe even… well, Dave wasn’t sure, but he knew fresh clothes and a nap were on the agenda for himself, in any case. Did he want to include Karkat in those plans? What an odd thought, yet the queasiness in his stomach said yes, that’s what he wanted.

Karkat seemed conflicted. He waited a little while, frowning deeply, holding the towel at his grey waist and trying to decide what to do.

“I think… uh…” Karkat shifted on his feet, and Dave noticed his face was now turned away from him. “It’s stupidly cold down here. Like nook-numbingly freezing, actually. How about we just grab our shit and wait until we get to the nearest room to, uh, decide what we wanna do?”

“You’d rather go than change now?”

Karkat groaned and snapped, “That’s what I just said, isn’t it?” He bent down and grabbed his handful of clothes, angrily jerking his head, gesturing for Dave to follow his lead. “And grab the blanket too,” he added as Dave grabbed his own clothes.

They ended up walking out of the bathroom and up the halls back towards the main part of the ship, close together, each holding one side of the blanket with one hand, their free arms holding their clothes. They talked very little, but when they did exchange words they were easy, and friendly, the usual banter and teasing between them restored. Dave found himself feeling incredibly refreshed, if a bit chilled by the damp air of the dark ship. But Karkat’s side kept his side warm, so he couldn’t complain much.

 

 


End file.
